450 Chapter XIX
Somewhat similarly, when the British occupied Corsica in 1794, and remained
for two years, setting up an Anglo- Corsican kingdom, the attempts of the British
viceroy at moderation were repeatedly frustrated; and Corsica, which had belonged
to France for twenty- five years, exhibited what might have happened in France if
the Counter- Revolution had succeeded at this time.^6
Rebellion broke out in western France, beginning in the Vendée, in March
- Led by disaffected seigneurs, in touch with the émigrés and the British gov-
ernment, it appealed to peasant grievances against the Revolutionary church policy
and military conscription. It spread most rapidly in rural areas, since the towns,
even the small ones, characteristically remained as isolated and besieged pockets
adhering to the new order. The leaders of the rebellion attempted to set up a civil
authority over such territories as they were able to control. This authority restored
the church tithe, re- established the royal courts as before 1789, and declared all
sales of former church and émigré property null and void.^7
The issue, for France and the world in 1793, was not whether one band of Jaco-
bins should chase out another, but whether Revolution or Counter- Revolution
should prevail.
Gouvernement Révolutionnaire
It was true that France at the moment suffered from anarchy, and that what it
needed was government. “Anarchy” is hardly too strong a word. Ministers and
ministries remained in existence, but decisions lay with committees of the Con-
vention, which consisted of 750 men from the middle classes assembled under
chaotic conditions, and enjoying neither confidence in each other, nor the prestige
of an acknowledged authority, nor habits of obedience on the part of the popula-
tion. Organs of local government, as set up in 1790 and 1791, had not had time to
consolidate. Tax reforms of the early years of the Revolution had also been caught
unfinished by the war and the upheaval of 1792. Taxes, like much else, existed
mainly in principle. There were no regular revenues, so that the Convention de-
pended on paper money. Army reforms, begun early in the Revolution, had also
been far from complete; the country went to war with its armies commanded
largely by officers of the Old Regime; and as the revolutionary spirit mounted into
1793, the officers increasingly lost respect for the civilians in Paris who claimed to
govern. Dumouriez was only the most spectacular case.
Impotence in what would normally be considered the government was matched
by an intense political liveliness among the “governed.” It was a question whether
the country could be governed at all, except by dictatorship, whether a revolution-
ary dictatorship such as soon developed, or the dictatorship of a restored king,
such as the moderate Mounier, writing in exile, had recommended in 1792. The
French people in 1793 were too highly politicized, too spontaneously active, too
for this purpose the first edition (Paris, 1924) is better, including note I to Book II, chap. 5, omitted
in the reissue.
6 See Chapter X XIV below.
7 For a good summary see J. Godechot, La Contre- révolution (Paris, 1961), 235.